Tariq Ramadan – Where is the Outcry?

It has been appalling to see the cold-hearted indifference among certain segments of the Western Muslim community to the plight of Prof. Tariq Ramadan. The man is wasting away in solitary confinement due to the unjust detention by racist, anti-Islam French authorities, and nearly no one is making a peep of protest.[1] Where is the outcry?

Personally, I disagree with the philosophy of Tariq Ramadan on many issues. But that does not give me the convenience of staying silent in the face of manifest injustice. Those individuals and organisation who are now silent for Ramadan have had no problem raising their voices for various non-Muslim causes, even some clearly un-Islamic ones (e.g. LGBT). But when you ask them to say something in defence of Tariq Ramadan, their cowardly and irrelevant response is, “But I don’t agree with him on the issues of x, y and z.” Such double standards are not acceptable.

Before he was selected for attack and unjustly jailed and put in horrific conditions, Ramadan regularly attended many Muslim conferences, lending his name to numerous Muslim causes in the US, UK, Canada, France, and throughout the Western world. Many prominent Muslim figures did not hesitate to take selfies with him and to put him on their panels and on the advisory boards of their organisations. And this silence is the thanks he gets? This is how he is abandoned in his desperate time of need? Allāh protect us all from ever getting treated in this cruel way.

And what about the “victims,” i.e. the four accusers who made their baseless accusations which, after months of investigation, have failed to be proven? Not a single shred of evidence suggests that Prof. Ramadan assaulted much less harassed anyone. Instead, what we have learned is that one of the four accusers is a white supremacist member of France’s National Front who plotted with other nationalist political actors to destroy Ramadan in advance.[2][3] Another accuser was an escort with accusations so flimsy that even the racist judges were forced to throw out her case.[4] And let’s not forget the first accuser, Henda Ayari. She has quickly attained celebrity status in France, celebrity status which has proven quite lucrative. She just published a new book titled: “I won’t be veiled, I won’t be raped.”[5] White supremacists regularly feature her on their programmes as a “survivor” of that “terrible cancer known as Islam.” All the evidence from her own cell phone and her own computer prove that none of her original claims were even close to being true.

But of course, unhinged feminist activists insist on lecturing us that we must #BelieveAllWomen. God forbid we require due process, a presumption of innocence, or anything else associated with justice and basic common sense. God forbid we think for a second how easy it is for any two or more women to collude with each other and come forward screaming “Rape!” in order to destroy the life of a prominent figure who has been a thorn in the side of the anti-Muslim, anti-Islam European political establishment for decades.

Now the most recent news being spread far and wide is that Prof. Ramadan confessed to “extramarital affairs.” How convenient that once all the rape accusations have been proven baseless, there is suddenly a “confession” of “sexual relations.” And of course the slimy cretins who were adamant that there is “not a shadow of a doubt” that Tariq Ramadan is a serial rapist are now, given the absence of substantiation, moving on to the next smear, telling us there is “not a shadow of a doubt” that he is a serial philanderer of some sort. Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on us.

Once again, the biased media lets the world know about an accused Muslim leader expressing to a select group of “trusted” officials his regret for not being faithful and admitting to his misdeeds. This story is one we have all heard before. There have now been multiple such “scandals” following the same exact script in the last two or so years, e.g. Nouman Ali Khan. And the slanderers always tell us:

“Damning evidence will be released soon! You don’t know the details that we know about, so stay quiet! Trust us!”

The question is: When will we as the Muslim community around the world learn that a “confession” under duress means nothing? When will we learn that when agenda driven groups blackmail a person we can’t then expect the “confession” to be anything other than what the blackmailers want to hear? It is time that we finally understand this basic, obvious point.

Ramadan has been in solitary confinement, jailed for months,[6] by people whose sole motivation is to smear him, to get just enough dirt on him to call him a hypocrite, because HOW DARE a man take religion seriously in secular France, how dare a man claim to abide by a higher ideal, to care about God. How dare he think he is better than us Godless heathens. So we’ll drag him down with us into the swill, ruin his career, ruin his name, but most of all, ruin the idea of a God-fearing man.

In this context, in front of these ruthless captors, a “confession” is squeezed out of the man’s incapacitated body.[7] Certain “Muslims” have been jumping with glee — “A ha! We knew it! Our relentless slander over the years has finally been vindicated!” And the witting and unwitting assistants to these fitna-mongers solemnly write,

“It is only safe to follow the dead.”

When a man came to the Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) confessing to zina,[8] the Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) turned away and said, perhaps you did not commit it in its entirety. Even at that level, at the point of confession, the Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) maintained husn al-dhann and did not wedge himself into the personal lives of others. But now we have those who wait to pounce on the flesh of the Muslims, to dig into their personal indiscretions, searching for the smallest detail with which to shred a man’s name, all behind the cheap façade of “helping victims.” These are the real predators, ignoring the Sunnah and its clear directives for their personal gain.

Brothers and sisters, let us be careful. Let us not get played. Let us wake up once and for all! Why are we handing our enemies the keys to our own destruction? Do we not realise that this is the playbook that is being carefully honed, carefully perfected so that it can be used against any Muslim scholar or leader who becomes too inconvenient for the powers that be, whether those powers are within our community or outside of it? It would not need to be like this if more people used some basic common sense and abided by time-honoured, sacred principles of due process and innocent until proven guilty, not private meetings, private investigations, private evidence held by “trusted” leaders, followed by public proclamation of wrongdoing and public denunciation of the target du jour.

Do not get conned.

Let us dedicate duʿā’ for Tariq Ramadan and his family. May Allāh grant him a quick release, strengthen and bless him and his family, restore everything that has been unjustly taken from them and grant them even more in this life and the next.

About Daniel Haqiqatjou

Daniel Haqiqatjou (pronounced: Ha-qee-qat-joo) was born in Houston, Texas. He attended Harvard University where he studied Physics and Philosophy. He completed a Masters degree in Philosophy at Tufts University. Haqiqatjou writes and lectures on contemporary issues surrounding Muslims and modernity. He has spoken at universities and mosques around the world and his work has been featured in outlets such as The Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNN, and Aljazeera.

9 comments

Note that the person calling himself AbdurRahman is behaving in a manner which l would like to call at best the ‘Uncle Tom Syndrome’.
Note, that all what he considers evidence is merely hearsay and nothing more.
Note, that he is His Master’s Voice and I have no doubt about who his master is.
Note, that his line of argument is only a sham of objectivity while it is solely based on a self-serving bias nurtured by an obvious personal envy.
Note, that accusations are not proof and assumptions do not constitute evidence.
Note, that Mr AR’s reliance on the so called investigation of the Sarkozy-friendly UOIF, a shameful instrument of the french state to sow discord in the muslim community of France, is a most ridiculous shred of ‘evidence’ that does not deserve any consideration at all.

Many a times women don’t even speak up because they will be slandered or distrusted and it will always be their fault. Sadly I know of many women who have been in a similar situation, come out from it so battered and broken and remain silent because they will be called liars. Allah SWT is the most just and only Allah SWT has disclosed this person’s character. If there is no truth in it then Allah SWT would have indeed saved him but only Allah SWT knows and He knows best.

The problem is No One knows if T. Ramadan did do OR whether he didn’t do those things, and how do you prove it either way and do we as indivuals have time to spend on this, to research, to demonstrate, etc? There are many ways people can and do badmouth Islam but why would they decide to TARGET T. RAMDAN – because he is what? A famous Muslim leader? Hugely qualified? Massively intelligent? A prophet? There are many more that are more qualified then he is. – so why would people make up stories of a man for no apparent reason? I mean why should we as Muslims support him? Oh I see! just because he is a Muslim? No my friends! Indeed not. Because it just seems that Muslim men can never do wrong, can they?!! They can go and do wrong as they wish and yet you will find a hadith or verse to twist and justify what he did.
Forget for one minute he is a Muslim and let the authorities take care of the investigation…. If he didn’t do it then he will be rewarded for his suffering. But why should we demonstrate and waste our times on someone who actually could have possibly committed these crimes and only Allah Knows. Live in this world as a traveller Tariq. And there is no suffering in this world for a Muslim, but that it is an expiation of his sins, even the prick of a thorn. Don’t worry about T. Ramadan. Let justice take its course ameen

That is the point.. Justice is not taking its course!
The judge the system is treating him totally unfairly! You say forgot he is muslim ok do so even you can say forget he is a man because that’s right it shouldn’t be about any of that it should be about a JUST TRIAL a person any person assumed innocent until PROVEN guilty. I don’t agree with on most of Mr Ramadan ideas but again that is not the point.
I’m not going to even bother going into how there is no actual evidence of the accusations, and their stories are full of holes it’s crazy.

Also you may not believe people should ‘waste’ their time or have the time to show support for justice or for a person who may be innocent being treated unfairly just because they are are muslim but there are plenty who do.
If you were accused of a crime and was innocent I honestly believe you would be saying very different to what u have written…very doubtful you will say ‘please do not waste your time on helping me’ or don’t worry about it M Jan…. I’m a traveller in this world;)

He is not being held in solitary confinement. He is being detained in a special wing at at Fleury-Mérogis prison set aside for high profile individuals. This means like that unlike the bulk of the other 20,000 people in pre-trial detention in France, he has a cell of his own, rather than sharing one with others. In this wing he is not able to associate with the wider prison population, but is able to associate with other people in this wing, both detainees and staff. Note that pre-trial detention is not at unusual in France: almost 30% of their prison population is made up of such detainees, and the average period of detention is 25months.

Note that the third complainant’s case has not been dismissed; rather it has not yet been heard. Note that the woman described as a white supremacist is not white. Note that there have been legal proceedings between the accused and various women making allegations of misconduct previously (in one case lodged in a Belgium court, in another case in a series of letters sent by lawyers over several years). If you probe deeply enough, you can dig up internal investigations conducted by the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF). It just depends how seriously you wish to investigate the accusations that have been made for several years now.